Direct Mail Campaign Drives Year-Round Income
G.A. Bove
G.A. Bove Fuels, a local fuel company specializing in residential heating, has a wide and loyal customer base in the Capital Region, earned through attention to customer service and locally-based distribution. However, the hot summers and cold winters in the Capital Region made their business very unpredictable.
G.A. Bove customers typically spend the majority of their heating fuel budgets from November to March, creating high sales during the winter months, and low sales in the summer months. G.A. Bove partnered with Burst Marketing to help promote their new budget plan to existing customers.
Challenge
The campaign was set to launch in the summer to steady cash flow during slow months, which posed a challenge. Typically, the last thing on the minds of home owners during that time of year is heating cost. In fact, most people are thinking about the cost to cool their homes and how to combat the summer heat. So, Burst set out to create an attention-getting campaign that would attract consumers any time of year.
Strategy and Execution
Burst took an integrated approach to capture the audience’s attention because the target audience was existing customers. To get them thinking about heating their homes and drive them to sign up for G.A. Bove’s budget plan, Burst designed a direct mail piece that lead to a conversion optimized landing page where customers could sign up for the budget plan.
The direct mail campaign took the form of a series of three postcards with lighthearted, yet impactful messages to get the attention of home owners. The postcard included bold graphics and suggestions for unconventional ways to reduce heating costs, offering G.A. Bove’s budget plan as an alternative.
The campaign caught the attention of G.A. Bove customers, drove them to the conversion-optimized landing page and increased awareness. The direct mail campaign assisted in increasing participation in the budget plan, while showing a lighthearted and humorous side to the local, family-owned brand.